Category: WWdN in Exile

Threadless finally reprinted a shirt I’ve been waiting a long time to get, and it went on sale today.

When I posted about this a few months ago, we all lamented that they sold out before we could buy them and make them the official T-shirt of our gang, so I’m doing my civic duty and letting everyone know that it’s available again.

For you damn kids today, this references a movie we all liked when we were young, called Reservoir Dogs. It was made by the guy who made Kill Bill.

What? You don’t know Kill Bill? Christ. Okay, how about Grindhouse?

No, he didn’t make the cool movie in Grindhouse. He did the other one, Death Proof.

I know, I know. But Reservoir Dogs is really a great movie, I swear.

Okay, how about Pulp Fiction? You ever hear of Pulp Fiction?

I know it came out when you were in elementary school, but you walk around in 80s clothes like they’re cool — they’re not, by the way, and I was there so I know what I’m talking about — and you weren’t even born then.

Look, the point is, when you’re as old as we are, you’ll want to have semi-obscure cultural references to share with other old folks, so you can spot each other in the line to work in the sugar mines and jointly recall a time when you were cool, and old people just didn’t get it.

Now get off my lawn, before I blast you with my laser before our evil alien overlords get back.

It’s here! It’s here! The day we all wait all year for has finally arrived!

It’s π day!

I’m celebrating the occasion by taking myself on a special geek date to Wizard World down at the convention center. It’s even cool enough outside for me to wear my π hoodie on the train.

There is going to be so much geeking out today, I can’t even stand it.

Please to be enjoying this classic WWdN post from 2004:

This morning over breakfast, I said to my wife, "Happy π day!"

"Happy pie day? What the hell are you talking about?"

"No, not ‘pie’," I said. "’π’."

"Not ‘pie,’ but ‘pie.’" She was clearly not amused. "Isn’t it a little early to be drinking?"

"Anne, look at the date on the calendar."

"Yes it’s march 14th, and you’re going to watch WrestleMania dos equis*
with your brother." She frowned. "Are you trying to tell me that you’re
taking a pie to Jeremy’s house? Because if you expect me to make you a
pie . . ."

"No, I don’t expect you to make me a pie." I said, well into that
area where you’ve explained the joke so much, it’s never going to be
funny.

"Today is March fourteenth. That makes it 3.14 on the calendar. 3.14 is also known as π."

She blinked a few times.

"Oh. It’s π day."

"Yes!" I said. "And at 1:59 pm, it will be even more π day. Isn’t that cool!?"

She took a long, thoughtful drink from her coffee mug, carefully set it down and said, "You are such a nerd."

Happy π Day, my fellow geeks.

Scraping out the brain again, here’s what I found:

I scored 100% on the Atari Quiz at mental_floss. Go me.

Some company called Schmap wants to use one of my pictures from Montreal in one of their travel guides. They say that they don’t pay for the pictures, because they give the guides away. However, they say that the guides are "ad supported" so clearly they’re making money off of them. While I’m normally inclined to decline unless they’re willing to negotiate payment, I’m considering granting them permission to use the picture, just because I think the whole thing is kind of cool. What do you think? UPDATE: I’m doing it. Lots of you have said that it’s been a good experience for you, so why not?

My headache is back. It’s getting really, really old.

I found a ton of awesome links at io9 when I was catching up on Bloglines yesterday: LOLCthluhu, Blade Runner concept art, and a satellite view of people evacuating Chad. Not that my opinion matters, but I’m really happy and relieved that io9 continues to be such a fantastic resource, instead of a pile of Gawkeresque gossip and crap. Who else would dare ask if J.J Abrams is a genius or a hack? Come on, you know you’ve been wondering. For the record, my jury is still out.

I follow Barack Obama on Twitter. His latest tweet: In Columbus,MS & wondering how somebody who’s in second place is
offering the vice presidency to the person who’s in first place. Vote
Tues! I love that Barack’s twitter stream has the same "voice" as all the other people I follow. Now, if he was only at SXSW, he could join the Rashomon that I’ve been enjoying from my friends who are there.

"Saying that Hillary has Executive Branch experience is like saying Yoko Ono was a Beatle." Zing! For the record, Hillary Clinton is a monster who will say or do anything to win an election. No, I won’t be resigning from anything because I said that.

Boingboing linked to an awesome flowchart that starts with D&D and ends (sometimes) with girls. It’s a humorous look at Gary Gygax’s legacy and maps out just how much he affected the lives of geeks everywhere.

Andy Warhol is one of my favorite Bowie songs.

So it turns out that there’s been a massive, illegal, warrantless domestic spying operation going on in the US for years. How can anyone with two firing neurons and an understanding of the Constitution continue to stand up and support Bush and Cheney? Clinton was impeached for so much less. Nixon resigned over less. The Democratic leadership in Congress is worthless. Totally worthless.

Reader E just e-mailed me that on the commentary track for Futurama, they said that Professor Farnsworth’s clone, Cubert, was inspired by Wesley Crusher. That’s good news, everyone!

There was a mini-WWdN Austin meet-up at the Jonathan Coulton show on Friday.

The Grateful Dead pack for Rock Band is outstanding. I picked up my
fake guitar for the first time since I started playing fake drums
exclusively so I could play Franklin’s Tower. (Boy do I suck at fake
guitar these days.)

I heard from Monte Cook and Matt Forbeck that part of my post remembering Gary Gygax was read at his service this weekend. I’m honored, and at a complete loss for words.

I watched Fast Food Nation last night. I thought it was a great movie, and I’m astonished that it didn’t do better in its theatrical release. Fun fact: I kept looking at Ashley Johnson through the whole movie — not just because she’s adorable, but because I kept feeling like I’d seen her somewhere else, and couldn’t place it. I looked her up on IMDB when the movie was over, and felt like a total moron: I felt like I’d seen her before because we’ve worked together on Ben 10. Twice. Durr.

Saturday night, Anne and I wanted to have some sort of date. I’ve been getting tired really quickly this week (doctor said to expect that) and I’ve had terrible headaches, so instead of going out, we stayed home and made dinner together.

I love cooking together. I love working together in the kitchen, helping each other out, and anticipating sitting down in our dining room when we’ve finished preparing our meal.

We made Eggplant Parmesan from a recipe I got from the Internets. Holy crap was it incredible. I think the key was using all organic and fresh ingredients, and olive oil instead of corn oil when we fried the eggplant. It took almost 3 hours from start to finish (the eggplant needed to drain for 2 hours) but since the whole idea was to hang out and make dinner together, the time didn’t matter; in fact, it was a bonus.

We also made this ice cream recipe that my mom gave us, using green tea soy ice cream, pineapple juice, coconut milk, and ginger snaps. It was kind of a weird choice, mixing something Asian with something Italian, but for mysterious reasons that are best left unexamined, it worked.

I’ve had a skull-crushing headache almost all week. It moves all around the front of my face, but it’s most persistent and most severe around and above my left eye.

It’s gotten so bad and so miserable, I called my doctor yesterday because I was worried about something Very Bad happening in my sinuses. Maybe I tried to do too much too soon, or maybe I have a small dwarf or elf living in there, I thought.

He thinks I may have pushed it too hard, so I’m back to minimal activity for the next five days. This timing is great, because we’re supposed to have nice weather all weekend, and I have a stack of comic books that I can take with me to the patio.

Reading the Absolute Dark Knight reactivated my Batmania, so I picked up Matt Wagner’s Batman and the Monsters and Batman and the Mad Monk. I also picked up the second TPB of Y: The Last Man, and the 4th TPB of Fables (I thought I’d read more of both of those, but apparently my brain was in my other pants at the time.) I’ve also got Doktor Sleepless, Black Summer, and Desolation Jones, because you can never have too much Internet Jesus while you’re taking antibiotics with side effects that (rarely but severely) include confusion, hallucinations, and nightmares.

For the moment, though, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, U2 is in heavy rotation on Airtunes*, and there’s an empty seat on the other side of the wall with my name on it.

Enjoy the weekend, wherever you are. If you’re in the US, don’t forget that our idiot government decided to make Daylight Savings time start a month early — tonight Saturday night / Sunday morning. Spring forward for great justice!

*Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, and B-sides from the 80s FTW.